Hello and Welcome to THE REALIST ARCHIVE PROJECT
a complete and unexpurgated republishing of all 146 issues (including supplements and related ephemera) of The Realist (historic underground magazine, more information)
January 15, 2023: An important OTHER announcement. After ten years of work, we now offer another important underground newspaper archive. Visit THE OTHER SCENES archive now!
December 30, 2020: Late end of year news! In a year of definite surprises, our friends at Media Burn Archive deserve the award for best upload of the year. Enjoy this full hour video of the Chicago Conspiracy 8 (i.e. Chicago 7) in their own words. This is an amazing gift of material:
March 20, 2020: Welcome to the archive! If this is your first visit, scroll down for access to individual issues. You can also start with issue one. The first webpage of each issue has a PDF download link and a next button for each subsequent issue.
May 2020: Just published. Listen to the archive's audio tribute to Paul, "The Portable Paul Krassner" - If you use The Realist Archive in an educational context, we recommend this album to go along with the course. A six-piece biography from phone conversations, originally for an interview with The American Bystander:
Support the archive with a small purchase to unlock the album in full
"When eating a sandwich at the delicatessen, be sure to remove the toothpick before taking your first bite." - Paul Krassner
July 2019: In tribute and loving memory to our dear friend Paul. The world has lost a wise one. But he left an amazing treasure of work and an example of how to live life on one's own terms, compassions, and strengths. Right up to the end, Paul was prolific and gifted. Read his last published piece, published in Variety last week. See his two collections from Fantagraphics.
If this archive has been of any value to you (or if this is your first visit), please consider a donation to his family through GoFundMe.
Archive now complete with 146 full issues. Select an issue from the following list.
All issues now available! Thanks for the memories, especially:
![](/web/20240717062503im_/https://www.ep.tc/realist/ronald-reagan.jpg)
There's a reason they're so happy.
Over 2,900 pages of unique satire and political history.
NEW FOR THE MONTH OF NOVEMBER, 2010:
PROJECT CONCLUDES WITH HISTORY, LANGUAGE, SCIENTOLOGY, GARBAGE, GURUS, GROUCHO, GRIEVANCES. AND NORMAN ROCKWELL. |
![](/web/20240717062503im_/https://www.ep.tc/realist/0-imgs/r-92-thumb.jpg) |
Issue No. 92 A,B,C Jan-June 1972
24 pages, click to read
"One Flew Over the Cuckoo Conference"
by Robert Wolf, with "The Rolling Stone Papers" and "History as Language and Human Garbage". |
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![](/web/20240717062503im_/https://www.ep.tc/realist/0-imgs/r-97-thumb.jpg) |
Issue No. 97 A,B,C Aug-Dec 1973
24 pages, click to read
Oh Boy: "The Awful Truth About Scientology", "Two More Views of the Miami Convention", and "What's Behind the 15-Year-Old Guru Maharaj Ji?" |
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![](/web/20240717062503im_/https://www.ep.tc/realist/0-imgs/groucho-acid-thumb.jpg) |
Bonus Item:
MY ACID TRIP WITH GROUCHO MARX
24 pages, click to read
Blue Angel Press' tract version of Paul Krassner's famous essay. Also includes good ads and some Robert Crumb. |
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![](/web/20240717062503im_/https://www.ep.tc/realist/0-imgs/r-146-thumb.jpg) |
Issue No. 146, Spring 2001
8 pages, click to read
FINAL ISSUE OF THE REALIST "Opium" by Norman Rockwell. With goodbyes, predictions and an exclusive final interview of Paul Krassner with himself. |
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February 2018 UPDATE: This site completed a raster-scan archive of every issue in 2010, but we have some recent information that improves the archive. First, there's a coffee table book from Fantagraphics called THE REALIST CARTOONS. Fantagraphics worked with the archive to make a wonderful book compiling the best comics of the full run of The Realist. It ended up great. Get a copy here.
Secondly, I'm delighted to mention the entire archive will soon be available in PDF text-searchable format. Credit to Jason Witherspoon who transfered each issue to PDF format, greatly increasing the access to information in these issues. Our THANKS to him. You'll see individual issues (starting with issue one) rolling out with a PDF option soon. I'll have the entire archive recoded to include PDFs within the year. |
A NOTE: The Realist Archive began in June 2007 with the goal to put every issue of The Realist online and freely accessible to anyone. The one large problem was only 1/3 of the run could be found available anywhere (well available in some places, but at the asking price of a large truck ... Krassner himself didn't have many of the older issues). And an even larger problem being many of the existing issues were (and are) crumbling away and required extensive digital restoration; many issues were destroyed in the act of scanning brittle newsprint itself. But that was part of the project, and every page of The Realist is now viewable - including even the subscriber-only sheets.
THANK YOU : Elayne Riggs (who loaned 30 issues from the second run), Jon Elliston, Jim Lippard, Michael Dooley, Irv Coats, Paul Elitzik, Mark Frauenfelder, Erika Gosser, Larry Epke, Raj Kaup, Dennis Perrin, Joey Skaggs, Laurence McGilvery, Robert Newman, Joe Sanchez, Robert Norris, Scott Marshall, Laura Bucaro, Nancy Cain, and Tim Rumford. Also, very importantly: Sara, and some guy named Paul. — Ethan Persoff November 2010. |
January 2012
ADDITIONAL NOTE: One final item added to archive, entitled "One Year of Editing the Realist" (November 1959) from Lyle Stuart's THE INDEPENDENT (click for full scans)
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- visit paulkrassner.com - view other
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